YOUNG GIRL'S ARTIFICIAL LIMB PROVIDES HER ACTIVE LIFE

For Oklahoma resident Sarah East, a "beanpole" allows her to feel the ground.

That beanpole is her prosthetic leg, which allows her to play basketball, softball and tennis, and to dance, run, ride her bike and do most things other 12-year- olds do.

Sarah's myoelectric leg works like this: When she puts pressure on her foot, sensors send an electric shock to electrodes on her remaining limb, letting her brain know the location of the pressure.

Children's Express first read about Sarah in National Geographic World magazine. We talked to Sarah by phone recently about her leg and also called Polly Allard, a certified prosthetist-orthotist from American Limb and Orthopedic company in South Bend, Ind., to find out more about prosthetic limbs. Allard makes artificial limbs and helps correct orthopedic problems.

Sarah's leg was manufactured especially for her by an Oklahoma company. It is not available for most individuals needing a replacement limb, according to Allard.

Sarah got her first prosthetic leg when she was 6 months old. John Sabolich of Oklahoma City, who helped design her artificial leg, has worked with Sarah since she was a baby.

Sarah, who lives in Anadarko, Okla., says she's not jealous of people with two legs.

"I do everything they do. Nothing stops me," says Sarah, who was born with an incomplete left leg.

Nothing stops Sarah because she convinced Sabolich to help make a custom limb so she wasn't limited. She likes to try the new legs because "I like to experiment (with) new things, experience new things."

It is not unusual for amputees to experiment with different equipment before their prostheses are created.

"It just depends on the patient," says Allard, who designs and builds prostheses that replace limbs. "The way the prostheses are designed is by patient need. . . . There are companies that make components and parts. . . . My job is to evaluate a patient and decide what kind of components would fit that patient."

Allard must take into consideration how much the patient weighs and his or her age.

"I don't expect my 82-year-old grandmother that has just had an above-knee amputation to go run a marathon. If we can get her comfortable wearing the legs, then maybe she will be able to get up and walk around the house . . . and do whatever she was going to do before _ watering her plants and going to church. Then we've done a good job."

Allard has worked with a teen who played on the varsity football team. Because the patient's goal was to play varsity football, he was fitted with a prosthesis that allowed him to do that.

There's no single right replacement for every patient, and such a decision must be well thought out, because prosthetic limbs can cost as much as $35,000, Allard says.

Prosthetic technology has come a long way _ from the days of Captain Hook's hand and Long John Silver's pegleg to limbs with a sense of feeling. As with any new device, there are many pros and cons.

While myoelectric limbs are the best-looking and most technologically advanced, they do have some drawbacks: They are expensive, heavy and must be handled carefully. However, they are easier to operate than conventional prostheses. Conventional prostheses require a harnessing system to make the limb work.

Myoelectric limbs may not be suitable for children, Allard says, "mostly due to their expense but also due to, some people argue, the upkeep _ that a child won't know not to get the arm wet or they might fall and knock it real hard. It might hurt some of the electric components in it."

Some people argue, however, that children deserve the most advanced prostheses available so that they can have the most mobility possible, Allard says.

Allard enjoys working as a prosthetist-orthotist because she likes to construct objects and to deal with people. She says that in many other fields you either get to do one or the other. Allard feels that it's a relatively new career that has many opportunities. The job also has obstacles.

"Some people still feel that amputation is ugly." Until society overcomes the notion that an amputee is somehow less of a person, Allard's work is important. "We make something a little more cosmetic, more lifelike looking, so (amputees) are less obvious."

And how do people feel about Sarah's leg?

"It doesn't really bother me," replied her friend, Kim Kopepassah. "It just seems like she has a real leg."

"Well, some people just laugh," Sarah said. "When I was in the fourth grade, there were these boys at school that were in the same class and a new person came into school and laughed at me, and they beat him up."

Sarah sometimes jokes about her leg. "This is what I tell little kids when they ask me what happened to my leg. I tell them I got it cut off in my mom's blender; or I shut it in a car door; or an alligator bit it off or something like that."